strong enough to use a 120?

[MMM]

If you do decide to go with Aldora, ask that they seat you at the REAR of their boats. Because of their boat design, the distance from the seat to the side edge of the boat is lower than toward the front. This is not an issue for men with long legs but it is an important factor for shorter people ( I.e. 5'3"). This is NOT an issue on Living Underwater's boat as it is the same distance from seat to edge all along the boat. It has been many years since I was on Liquid Blue's boat, but I don't recall that being an issue there either. Coming from someone who has been in your fins!

 

[briankinley2004]

I am 6' and about 170#. I dove with the them using the 120's. I was constantly fighting to stay face down. I had zero weights in my bc. They stepped me down to the next size tank and everything was perfect. Never had any air issues, in fact I think I used more with the 120 trying to stay trimmed properly.

 

[mikeycanuk]

My then 12 year old son a year ago used a 100 and 120 without problems, he was helped up but made it of the Felicity dive deck without issue.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Brules]

So to the OP - something I would be more concerned with is keeping warm....at your size/weight, and combined with LU/Aldora/Large tank providers dive times - you may have an issue staying warm.

Keep that in mind - Im a hoss and I dive AL80's and at 80-90min I am pretty darn cold. No wet suit, but still lol. Just keep that in mind.

Enjoy!

 

[MMM]

Both ops provide fleece jackets at the surface. I think Liquid Blue may do as well, but like I said a while back, been more than a few years that I have been on their boat. The fleece jackets don't help you much when you are underwater though and getting chilled. For me to pull long dive times, I need lots and lots of neoprene. In the winter I wear a 5 mm suit with a 5 mm hooded vest underneath! Although the latter is old and probably more like 3mm.

So to the OP - something I would be more concerned with is keeping warm....at your size/weight, and combined with LU/Aldora/Large tank providers dive times - you may have an issue staying warm.

Keep that in mind - Im a hoss and I dive AL80's and at 80-90min I am pretty darn cold. No wet suit, but still lol. Just keep that in mind.

Enjoy!

 

[scubafanatic]

My husband and I are trying to choose a dive shop in Coz for May. Living Underwater and Aldora offer 120 steel tanks for longer bottom time which sounds great. However, I'm 5'4", 135 lbs, not very strong. I'm wondering if I would even be able to handle a tank like that. Does anyone know how a situation like that is likely to turn out?

You will be MUCH happier, given your physical parameters, with a HP 100 steel tank ! The HP 120 steel tank will certainly be too tall for you, and likely heavier than you'll want to mess with as well. Personally, I like HP 120's ....... I own (6) HP 120s and (2) HP 100's, among my tank fleet....but I'm a guy, 175 lbs, 5'8", so I can deal with the tank length, but I'm borderline in that most people shorter than me would probably not enjoy diving the HP 120.

 

[Ron Lee]

So to the OP - something I would be more concerned with is keeping warm....at your size/weight, and combined with LU/Aldora/Large tank providers dive times - you may have an issue staying warm.

Keep that in mind - Im a hoss and I dive AL80's and at 80-90min I am pretty darn cold. No wet suit, but still lol. Just keep that in mind.

Enjoy!

I do not know what a "hoss" is but long dives without thermal protection is asking to be cold. Use a wetsuit. Add a thermal cap of some sort.

Use a dive jacket once you surface and get out of your wetsuit.

Sit in the sun.

Enjoy the sun during the surface interval......unless your dive op motors between dive sites.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I sincerely hope my hijack hijacks the hijack that MMM and Dave have going, but here's a related question that I had been considering posting in a separate thread:

Will I be overweighted if I use Aldora's steel 120 with my steel backplate? By my calculations, it's a close call and depends on what manufacturer's steel 120 it is. For example, the spec I found indicates a hefty Faber HP 120 goes from a buoyancy of -16.22 lbs. full to -7.22 lbs. empty. Starting at -16.22 plus a 6 lb. plate plus 2 lbs. for the reg set puts me roughly at -24. My wing has 26 lbs. of lift. So my rig by itself should float--barely. But could I swim up that weight if my wing were to fail at depth while the tank is still pretty full? Perhaps not.

And what if it turns out I'm tail heavy and need to add a trim weight? There's no margin to do that.

I know the steel 120 gets lots of praise, but perhaps for someone bringing a rig that's more optimal for the ol' Al 80 it is not the right tank to use.

I found an old thread in which someone asked about the buoyancy characteristics of Aldora's steel tanks, but I'll ask afresh here.

 

[Ron Lee]

Lorenzoid, will you wear a wetsuit? How much buoyancy does it provide.

I will offer a suggestion. Make sure that your first dive is over a nice sandy area. Then if you plop to the bottom at some unknown speed, you will not damage coral.

Have other divers with GoPro cameras stationed along the distance to the bottom including two at the bottom to record the impact and subsequent sand cloud.

Several divers can attach SMBs to you to give you more buoyancy and adjust as required throughout the dive.

I would avoid swimthroughs...where you never see anything anyway....using SMBs for added buoyancy.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Lorenzoid, will you wear a wetsuit? How much buoyancy does it provide?

My first thought was to use a 5/4 mm full suit if I'm going to be getting well over an hour of bottom time on those big tanks--I tend to get chilly in a 3/2 mm after an hour even in water as warm as 80-82 F. A 5/4 mm full suit would provide plenty of buoyancy at the surface--so floating the rig with me in it would not be a problem--but as you know, the issue is at depth when compression diminishes its buoyancy.